Let's get this forum started!
Let's get this forum started!
Just wanted to open up this forum with a topic about digital painting with Open Source Software, namely MyPaint and GIMP Paint Studio.
MyPaint is a relatively new program, not even at version 1.0 yet, but it is still pretty slick. It has a lot of nice features including layers, but just remember that this is painting software, not image manipulation software (think GIMP and Photoshop). You can rotate an image, but that is about it, no curves, no cropping, just painting. The interface is very nice and minimal and makes excellent use of keyboard shortcuts. The best way to use it is with one hand on the stylus and one hand on the keyboard. This allows you to show and hide tool boxes very quickly, which leaves most of the screen available just for painting.
GIMP Paint Studio (GPS), as you may guess, is a fork of GIMP. If you have used the GIMP before, then the interface of GPS will be nothing new to you. The main differences are the new brushes, new paletts, and the tool-option presets. Basically, you get a lot more tools with a lot more options, plus, you still get all of the image manipulation tools. The new tools and configurations make the GIMP a lot nicer to paint with. I will go into how to use all the nice new features of GPS in a later post.
So, now you have no excuse not to try digital painting! Here are two great Free and Open Source Softwares just waiting for you to download them and give them a spin! And if you already use software like Painter or Photoshop, you too have no excuse not to at least give them a try.
Let us not forget Krita which is my current favorite and the way I understand it soon to support the Mypaint brushes.
Krita is a KDE program for sketching and painting, offering an end–to–end solution for creating digital painting files from scratch by masters.
Fields of painting that Krita explicitly supports are concept art, creation of comics and textures for rendering.
Modelled on existing real-world painting materials and workflows, Krita supports creative working by getting out of the way and with snappy response.
Another one to mention is Alchemy. It's a sketching program where you try to find ideas through chaos. Very useful for quick prototyping and developing new designs. Here's one cool example.
@Lamoot
Yes! Thanks - a bit disappointed that Alchemy didn't come up until the 3rd post...
@verbalshadow
I tried Krita probably about a year ago, it seemed unintuitive to me at the time, and I didn't like all the dependencies, though I should probably try it again.
@ceninan
Sorry! I was just naming the two tools that I use the most and know the most about! I do like Alchemy, though, and should probably utilize it a bit more.
I've tried alchemy, but there are still some quite annoing bugs... For example, when I release the brush the image is "shuffled" and it returns normal when I press again
However, it's a very nice program, and I hope it will become a bit more stable
Sounds like a likely driver bug(Linux?). I've never had any problems under Windows, but unfortunately I can't say the same for Linux (which generally has poorer-quality graphics drivers). YMMW.
Honestly, I have never had any issues with alchemy on Linux or Windows. But i would definately file a bug report.
No problem with Alchemy on linux here.